Housing
What size is your tank? 2 gallons
What temperature is your tank? 80
Does your tank have a filter? No
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?

New Life Spectrum Betta Formula, Frozen Blood worms

How often do you feed your betta fish?

3 Pellets twice a day Mon-Fri, Frozen Bloodworms Sat., Fast Sunday
Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? 3 times a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50% twice a week, 100% once a week
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Kordonís NovAqua Plus Water Conditioner and a dried Indian Almond Leaf

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Hmmm, sounds like you're doing good water changes. How are you cleaning the substrate? Typically when a fish hangs at the top it's a lack of oxygen in the lower part of the tank. Can you get a small air stone or something to agitate the water? Does his belly look bloated? How long has he not been eating? Do his scales look pine coned when you look down on him?

Hmmm, sounds like you're doing good water changes. How are you cleaning the substrate? Typically when a fish hangs at the top it's a lack of oxygen in the lower part of the tank. Can you get a small air stone or something to agitate the water? Does his belly look bloated? How long has he not been eating? Do his scales look pine coned when you look down on him?

The substrate is gravel so I clean it by swishing the water around and dumping it until I don't see any debris. I don't have an air stone, but I do have a little filter I could run in the tank to agitate the water a bit to reintroduce oxygen.

He hasn't eaten in about 6 days so he is getting skinny not bloated. His scales actually look pretty good with nice color. His only problems at the moment is low body weight and vertical floating.

I have a female who's always had a problem swimming similar to that, her hind end just won't go horizontal, I call her my handicapped Betta. I could tell in the little cup she had a problem but I thought it would correct itself when she had room to swim. I wasn't sure she'd make it. She gets around but it's always a bit of a struggle swimming straight, well swimming anyway but down. I've had her 6 months now & she's in a 46g community tank.

How long, exactly has he been not eating? low body weight usually isnt seen for a week or so. Also, 3 pellets once a day is fine, bettas do not need that much food. I bet overfeeding gave him constipation which caused swimbladder. I am in class so I cant give details, someone explain for her?

Swim Bladder Disease (SBD)/Bloat
•Symptoms: Betta has trouble swimming, maybe he can’t stay upright and can only swim on his side.
•Treatment: This is not a contagious or fatal illness. If it isn’t congenital (aka a condition that he/she has had since birth), then it is caused by over feeding or feeding the wrong foods. Bettas will typically recover after a day or two of Epsom Salt treatments (1-2tsp/gal) and fasting. You can help prevent a reoccurrence by switching to a better pellet food, feeding less and offering a more varied diet. To make it easier for the betta to eat and breath, you can make the water shallower. You can offer him/her frozen daphnia (sold at Petsmart) as daphnia will help him/her pass stool. DO NOT FEED THEM PEAS.

Got this info from a stickie under the label 'Betta Fish Disease and Treatment Part 2'.